Dan Mitchell, Hard Mag, Issue 6, 2012

Last month’s hot-ticket art history conference in London was, like a number of Modernist artworks, officially ‘Untitled’. An accompanying parenthetical helpfully aided the viewer’s interpretation of the events which subsequently took place; in this case the subject matter squeamishly embraced by the robust roster of panelists was ‘Labour’ [sic]. Organized by Lauren Rotenberg and TJ Demos of University College London and Tate’s Nora Razian, by 6.30 pm on Saturday March 17 the half-day symposium had smartly demonstrated the rigidity of the academic/institutional complex in practically addressing ‘new forms of labor in the emerging global economy’ by formally reifying post-Fordist conditions of (knowledge) production; ie. gathering a number of specialist intellectual laborers into a tight assembly line and compelling them to turn cartwheels outside of office hours. This was not achieved without some entertainment; and had it been a performance choreographed by someone like Liam Gillick, one could even call it an artistic masterpiece.
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The sold-out audience must have indicated the serious level of interest in questions of precarity and immaterial labor presently, either within the field of cultural production – the ramifications of the artist as creative-worker supreme – or just generally, via movements including OWS Arts & Labor in the United States or ongoing student protests in the United Kingdom against tuition fee hikes and cuts to arts funding and the National Health Services, among others. So the incidence of the conference was pretty apposite; those in attendance were artists, PhD students, activists, curators and other members of this particular public.

Courtesy Paida Larsen

During the first session, the notion of immaterial labor was ambiguously qualified as the consequence of the dematerialized art object (since the 1960s), thus making such potentially political theory appropriate territory for historians of the new art. A subtext to this premise was the rise of so-called socially-engaged art practice, which rather recently has served as a means of cultural legitimacy sometimes awarded with special grants and other arts funding, at least in Europe (a detail not much discussed). The most thoughtful comments came from Stefano Harney of Queen Mary University, resembling Jeff Bridges in physiognomy and Dude-mannerisms, who ID’d the first iteration of immaterial labor as management – with its emphasis on flow (logistics) at the expense of the newly-deskilled laborer, presumed ‘creative’ in the setting of a bohemian lifestyle/workplace and lacking consciousness of any correspondence to an abstracted, overarching system or ‘machine’ (capitalism’s strategy: alienation). He later suggested, ominously, that in Benjamin’s allegory of the backward-facing angel of history, we might actually be the rubble: transfixed in our own eternal present. Hito Steyerl took a more tragicomic approach, displaying a series of photoshopped images of sovereign freedom, and comparing the helmeted policeman’s pepper-spraying stance at UC Davis to that of the square-shouldered action painters of the mid-20th Century. Considering the securitization of the state and the outsourcing of violence, Steyerl’s supposition that police might soon become freelance mercenaries engaged in Stakhanovite-style strike work (exceeding their quotas to absurd levels, not only in Afghanistan) dispensed with factory conditions altogether in imagining the current era as one of New Feudalism. Her essential ‘further reading’ recommendations to the casually employed, on parting: Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961). ‘A truce is merely the seed for an even bigger battle, nothing is worse!’

Courtesy of Paida Larsen

In a mostly abbreviated discussion period, Steyerl eventually queried: “Does anyone really think artistic work is immaterial?” Bodies and hardware are after all required to manifest the most ephemeral or digital activities, remunerated or no; moreover the legions of gallery assistants, technicians, critics, cataloguers, conservators, interns, hard drives and server space necessary to propel ensuing ‘immaterial’ products into the realm of cultural memory (the museum). Another question from the audience on the exigencies of the term itself – via Marx and Italian autonomist Maurizio Lazzarato – and why its relation to contemporary art production should even be assumed, was defensively dismissed as killing the potentiality of conference objectives. So the reason for proposing the relation in the first place was neither clearly stated nor a topic for discussion; something of a politically correct double-bind enforced in the interests of ‘pressing on’. Classically defined by Lazzarato as the labor that produces the informational and cultural content of the commodity, in 2008 David Graeber suggested the potential laziness of the category: “by defining art as belonging to the immaterial domain, it’s materialities, or even its entanglement in other abstractions (like money) need not be addressed.”¹ In fact more effort was given to unpacking the organisers’ CVs than the sense of this problematical concept.

Immigrant Movement International headquarters in Corona, Queens, NY. Photograph Courtesy Creative Time.

With hardly enough time for a cigarette, the second, artier session dissolved even more quickly – and exhaustedly. Skyped in from Cuba, Tania Bruguera introduced her community-based project IM International, co-produced by Creative Time and the ‘less cool’ Queens Museum of Art last year, stressing ‘outcomes’ as a measure of the program’s success; after which Carey Young drily flipped through a powerpoint of her corporate-conceptual work and quasi-managerial experiences. In her talk on delegated performance, Claire Bishop noted that Yvonne Rainer’s task-taking of MoCA and Marina Abramovic last November should really have focused on the banality of the dancer-as-table-decoration more than the underpaid hours spent training for said role. And Stewart Martin of Middlesex University began somewhere near Marx’s labor capacity to eventually joke that Warhol’s Factory was probably a good deal more fun than Anselm Kiefer’s. For the discussion period Bruguera and Young irreconcilably disputed the necessary politics of art, despite technical delays, with Bishop taking a diplomatic position in between and Martin expressing his uncertainty at what people generally mean by ‘capitalism’ or by turns ‘art’. When a representative of the Precarious Worker’s Brigade ‘occupied’ the audience mic by promoting their cause – organizing a payback scheme for interns – one noted its general irrelevance to what was then being debated. When a second representative asked about the funding structure of the conference itself, Rotenberg blanked the question and Demos hastily took the podium as if to quell a minor uprising; haplessly concluding things along the lines of ‘we think we’ve done a good job’. Which was of course, ironic, because so little productive discussion took place (clock ticking) despite the salad of theoretical ideas and jumbled experts present for the occasion; an opportunity for interdisciplinary crossover opportunistically instrumentalized as mere academic research. On exiting, another audience member reprimanded the Precarious Workers for their lack of manners; whether this was deserved it was still baffling that their presence should shock anyone in the least. Which is to say the domains of theory and practice are still exceedingly divided when it comes to contemporary labor practices within the field of contemporary art; perhaps they should even remain that way. Because maybe it would be better to live the present – discursively and socially – instead of subscribing to the fashionable political theories of those ideologically entrenched in the current system or limiting the field of possibility to the domain of the institution where it is studied, qualified, less often enacted. When it comes to production and activity within the community, work as such deserves certain scrutiny: to what purpose, for whom? “Life, health and love are precarious – why should work be an exception?”²

If the function of the state is to manage ongoing crises in the greater process of collapse, perhaps one might consider the institution arbiter of same with regard to the circulation and preservation of art. There may be other strategies for dealing with this reality, one dreams what they might be…

1. David Graeber, “The Sadness of Post-Workerism: or ‘Art And Immaterial Labour’ Conference: A Sort of Review (Tate Britain, Saturday 19 January, 2008),” The Commoner (2008), http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=33. NB: Lazzarrato
2. The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection, Los Angeles, Semiotext(e), 2009, p.43.

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School of Global Art from LuckyPDF TV on Vimeo.

In 1991 Stan Douglas created ten «Monodramas». Conceived as interventions into commercial television, these television spots interrupted the usual flow of advertising and entertainment when broadcast nightly in British Columbia for three weeks in 1992. These micronarratives mimic televisions editing techniques, but as kernels of a story they refuse to cohere. They are tales of dysfunction and dislocation, misanthropy and misunderstanding. When the videos were aired unannounced during commercial breaks, viewers called the station to inquire about what was being sold, their responses evincing how the media can refocus attention from content to consumption.

Mercury has now been moving in retrograde motion for two weeks, which means we’ve had three planets moving backwards through the Zodiac including Saturn and Mars, and it may have felt like an astrological apocalypse. In our current New Age of awareness, the many SNAFUs associated with Mercury in retrograde have become popular knowledge, but while Mercury has become a “pop” planet, the rest of the solar system has remained relatively “indie.” Underground culture has always been an influential but under-rated inspiration for the mainstream, and the same is true of the “underground” planets of the cosmos. Saturn and Mars have a huge effect on our lives when they are in, and out of retrograde. Understanding how to work with their energy is essential knowledge as we hike the cosmic path.

To help you out as you prepare to scale the celestial mountain range before us, I’ve prepared a guide to dealing with each planet as it retrogrades this year. Remember to mark these dates in your calendar, and pack your cosmic backpack accordingly!

You could say that dealing with a retrograde planet is kind of like trying to do a whole routine backwards on the eliptical. At first you think you’re working all the same muscles, but then you discover a whole new kind of soreness after your workout. When a planet goes retrograde, you should expect whatever area of life that planet rules to get a serious workout. Retrograde cycles are fated times, and it’s usually impossible to fight the flow of events. Right now, your Saturn and Mars might be feeling the burn in a big way, but the positive news is that when they finally get off the eliptical, they will be trim and toned.

Before a planet even starts moving backwards, it spends time slowing down, and then finally “stations” in one position before it begins to retrograde. This is one of the most important, but overlooked facts about dealing with planetary retrogrades because the events during the time before (usually around 2 weeks) will give you an idea of what you’ll be dealing with for the duration of the retrograde. If you can, try to meditate on the last two weeks, and the patterns that seem to appear might reappear while Mercury travels in reverse.

Mars
January 24th – April 14th

Mars the planet of Sex and War. It rules our actions, our level of energy, the way we express sexuality and aggression, and it exerts a certain extra level of control over men (remember women are from Venus, men are from Mars after all). When it began its retrograde cycle on January 24th, the universe starting started operating on seriously passive aggressive wavelength. Mars in Virgo alone makes us feel a little bit irritable and anxious, since Virgo is the most analytical sign of the Zodiac. The energy of Mars is slightly uncomfortable in Virgo, as we start to over-analyze ourselves before we act. Since Mars rules aggression, we have to be extra-sensitive to others when it goes in to retrograde, especially now since Virgo can be a surprisingly sensitive sign. Small disagreements easily escalate in to fights. Some astrologers say Mars in retrograde is not always such a bummer because we will be less tempted to make bold decisions and life changes during this time. Mars gives us a period of time to thoroughly contemplate our path, and allows us to speed ahead on a determined course once it moves forward. Right now Mars is beginning to move back towards forward motion. It’s not time to begin manifesting just yet, but listen to your Martian instincts now and by April 14th you will be ready to move on to the next plane of existence.

Saturn
February 7th – June 25th

If you’ve felt a cosmic quake in your relationships over the past 9 months, you can thank Saturn in Libra for the unexpected changes. Saturn is in charge of all the major physical and psychological structures in our lives and it is the planet of rules, regulations, and government. It’s kind of like the “Dad” of the solar system. Without it’s influence we would lack guidance and foresight, but too much Saturn in your life will make you feel like you got grounded for smoking pot in the garage. Saturn allows us to set boundaries and make plans. Saturn transiting Libra, the sign of relationships, love, and creativity, might have been setting too many boundaries in these areas- or maybe just pushing and testing them- over the past few months. Libra loves to weigh the pros and cons of a situation, so for the past few months you might have been going back and forth on some important issues of love or wavering on a creative project. During this retrograde it is the time to contemplate what’s truly meaningful to you, and what’s just weighing you down on your cosmic journey. It has been an emotional trip since last summer when Saturn entered Libra., and the retrograde that began on February 7th, actually allows us to go back and reassess the changes we’ve made. It won’t be a time to make big decisions, in fact, things will hardly seem to move forwards at all during a Saturn retrograde. When Saturn finally moves forward, we will have laid the foundation for an inspiring future.

Mercury
March 12 – April 4th
July 14th – August 8th
November 6th – November 26th

Mercury is the fastest moving planet, so fast in fact that it retrogrades three times a year. Ruler of the mind, and all matters related to communication and technology, people start to get pretty kooky whenever Mercury takes a trip backwards. With all of the brainwaves, radio waves, and cell phone signals that are already crossing paths in an attempt to communicate, it’s a miracle that we manage to share knowledge to begin with, and when Mercury goes in to retrograde everything goes haywire. It’s common for people to lose or forget things, and miscommunications abound. Mercury, like all planets begins its retrograde journey in one sign, and exits in another, and the issues related to this sign are highlighted during this time. For the past two weeks, Mercury has been moving back and forth between Aries and Pisces. Mercury is not particularly happy in either of these signs. In Pisces, Mercury becomes hazy and details tend to get lost in a layer of general confusion and mystery. You won’t have to deal with confrontations, but your friends might suddenly stop answering your texts and emails. In Aries, Mercury is combative, and we are prone to speaking before we think and regretting our glibness. People will tell it like it is when you just want them to “talk to the hand.”

Pluto
April 10th – September 18th
Technically, Pluto is no longer considered a planet, and yet it is so powerful that it still manages to exert a huge amount of control over the Zodiac. It is considered a generational influence, and it’s power is felt strongly in the areas of government, and business. It is associated with issues of power and control and the process of death and rebirth. When Pluto goes in to retrograde this year, we can expect a period of shift in the structure of society. Pluto in retrograde reveals secrets and creates tension in government. Pluto and Uranus, the plan of revolution, strangeness, and sudden change will team up to create a massive universal shift, as they square seven times in the next three years. The first square will be on June 24th. The time leading up to each of these squares will be filled with exciting stories in the news, so make sure you update your subscription to Star Magazine after Mercury comes out of retrograde. Pluto in retrograde won’t directly effect our lives as much as one of the “personal planets” (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), it’s more of a macro planet. But it can certainly be a game changer in the long run as it has the power to completely alter the structure of our society. For those with negative Pluto aspects in their birth chart, Pluto in retrograde might bring about migraines and headache, so stock up on Aspirin just in case!

Neptune
June 4th – November 11th
Neptune is the planet of dreams and illusions, and when it turns retrograde, it actually enhances our receptivity and understanding of the mysterious and the mystical. The “inner voice” will be doing a Raga chant all summer long, making this an exceptional period to practice your psychic abilities, take up Tarot, or begin any kind of spiritual studies. For those who are already spiritually sensitive, Neptune in retrograde might feel like a psychic overload, so it will be necessary to meditate often and take time to relax and recharge your aura. Use this time to expand your mind in to the next dimension, but remember not to lose it there! For those who are dealing with psychological trauma or depression, Neptune in retrograde can deepen feelings and create negative visions and nightmares. It is important to stay focused on the positive, and ground yourself in reality because Neptune can easily sweep you out in to a sea of dreams (or nightmares, depending on your mood). Neptune stimulates addictive personalities, so it will be especially important to avoid abusing drugs and alcohol during this time. This is the perfect time to use mind-expanding psychedelics like Mescaline, but depressants are to be avoided because they will only dampen your energy field. Take this time to cleanse yourself, mind, body, and soul!

Uranus
July 13th – December 13th
Uranus will retrograde through the sign of Aries this summer, and the energy invoked will be revolutionary, and at times, very, very strange. There will be a need for psychic change and a shift in the collective consciousness. Uranus will heighten our desire for freedom, and it will be easy to manifest changes for ourselves and for society at large during this period. Uranus tends to bring out the weirdo within. This is going to be the summer of the eccentric, as Neptune sends us brainwaves from beyond and Uranus compels us to express our strangest thoughts.  Uranus in retrograde can make us feel anxious, because unexpected events in all aspects of life are possible during this time, especially when Uranus is in the accident prone sign of Aries. Uranus in Aries is impulsive and sometimes even reckless; it can lead us to make hasty decisions. If possible, keep cool and collected during these hot summer months. Plan on expecting the unexpected and practice your mental yoga now, because your mind will need a lot of flexibility.

One Tiny Hand

In 1999 Nicolas Fernández began to include the new digital media in his output; the web sites You_Left (1999) and Father_Nature (2000) offer viewers a walk of endless possibilities through mazelike sound spaces that are scattered with texts. Father_Nature brings together, amongst a range of images, photos from dif­ferent internet porn sites and paramilitary hunting clubs. They show nude female bodies posed in natural settings. The artist’s gesture alters the very texture of the images; the appearance of humans and nature is broken up, split apart. It is the mutations of these representations, more than their pornographic nature, that catch the eye, augur­ing a twilight world.

In 2004 Fernández resolutely embraced painting, which had been latent in his work for years. Often referring to myths, these figurative pictures typically feature a juxta­position of heavily worked zones with other areas that remain only sketched out, conferring a different existen­tial status on the represented elements. Inspired by a photo in a magazine, Jocaste (2008) questions the relationship between humans; whereas the joined hands weld the three figures together, the look in their eyes thrusts each down into its own sphere. These beings, seemingly with­drawn into their own world, point to another that lies be­yond representation.

–‪Maryline Billod

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http://nicolasfernandezarchives.blogspot.com/